The present invention relates to a self-locking holder for an item of jewelry such as a cuff link.
Through the ages, cuff links have become a standard item of jewelry. Whereas most men's shirts today are provided with buttons, the finer dress shirts are provided with cuffs prepared for cuff links. Consequently, cuff links are normally an expensive item of jewelry designed to compliment such finer shirts. Whereas in the past, inexpensive cuff links were prevelant, they are today a highly regarded, and often very expensive item of jewelry, which therefore frequently attain a high sentimental value.
Although cuff links, as well as other items of jewelry, have become more expensive, the means and devices for holding these items of jewelry have remained substantially the same as in the past. With cuff links, in particular, their holders have traditionally been a compromise between function and cost. For example, the U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 70,769; 2,177,443; 2,252,851; and 2,270,677 disclose a variety of standard cuff link holders which represent a compromise between their ability to perform the desired function of holding the respective cuff links with a reasonable degree of security and ease of manufacture. None of these cuff link holders, however, provide completely secure means for retaining the cuff links on a shirt cuff, whether or not the shirt is being worn.